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Non Tri-Wiz Yule Ball? Alice's Maiden Name?

Hey everyone. Okay, for the fic I'm writing entitled 'A Heart Torn by War' (click to view) I need to incorporate a Hogwarts Formal of some sort. I'm thinking perhaps a Yule-Ball type deal, but without the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The only plausible idea I've come up with is hosting a Welcoming Ball/Feast for a foreign exchange student attending Hogwarts that year. (Because this is set in the Marauder-era, early war years, I was thinking perhaps Karkaroff could be the exchange student, and then him and Snape meet up, etc.) Any feedback or ideas would be wonderful. Somehow I have to get these Marauders into dress robes!

Also, just as a point of clarification, did we ever learn Alice Longbottom's maiden name? I made up my own ('Lewis') but I wanted to be doubly sure that I didn't overlook it in an obscure chapter or something.

I agree with Katie, they wouldn't throw a ball because only one student was coming. What if there was some type of foreign exchange program going on? And Karakroff (along with several other students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang) were taking the place of a Hogwarts student for a week or something?

I had always thought it plausible that there were foreign exchanges at Hogwarts. At my high school there were two every year (French and German). It would seem evident that this doesn't occur with that sort of regularity in Harry's time, since there is such a fuss cooked up over the foreign students in GoF, as much as the fact we never hear about it.

What I would have thought reasonable though, would be if there was an exchange trip once every seven years. This is because...

a) Seven is the most significant magical number, so if you're going to do something infrequently, once every seven years would give it a sense of status.

b) If the exchange takes place every seven years, and we assume that students only stay at Hogwarts for seven years (ie Crabbe and Goyle might retry for their DAtDA OWL, but if they don't get it by the end of their seventh year, they leave without it), then no student would be around for more than one exchange. Also, the exchange in Harry's time is replaced by the triwizard tournament, which may well be where the exchange trend started anyway.

c) Foreign exchanges and Yule Balls are blatantly brilliant set pieces to write fanfiction around, almost regardless of genre. Things of that ilk do crop up at high schools, and it seems unfair and unrealistic to remove both simply because the Triwizard Tournament was a special occasion.

I'd have thought that the exchange would simply have been between two schools, most likely Hogwarts and Beauxbatons, simply because of the relative closeness of Dumbledore and Madam Maxine. Of course Hagrid doesn't seem to have met her before GoF, so that's something to be careful with, though it might be more likely that specific teachers went over rather than headmasters and headmistresses...

*get's lost on a train of pure speculation*

...of course, the seven year rule might have to be fudged somewhere in order to make it work for the time of your fiction. Or maybe not.

That's what I'd have conjured up anyway. Free biscuits to everyone who can point out why that idea is a cheese cauldron.

1A) At my (new!) highschool we have five new foreign exchange students and we threw this HUGE welcome party for them. And they're only five people out of 1400! So, I guess it could be plausible, but I wouldn't highly recommend it. 1B) If you only want one student, it could be a highly celebrated student. The student could be the "Albus Dumbledore" of his time and there to study under the best teachers in the wizarding world. Of course, they would have to throw a ball in her/his honor...

2) If you had the patience, you could figure out a date for Hogwarts to be founded (approx. sometime before 993 int he tenth century) and make it an anniversary party!

3) Fundraiser! The students of Hogwarts could put on a ball to raise funds for a new ward at St. Mungo's or something.

4) A teacher could get married and the teacher would graciously throw a dance for the students only to celebrate her/his union. I don't know, this was just a random idea.

Instead of a Yule Ball it could be at Halloween and still be a formal affair. The foreign exchange students is a great idea and Keefy's "Seven" year theory is a really good idea. Also, during this time Voldemort begins to rise to power so perhaps the ball is thrown in order to try and raise the student's spirits.